It’s a “Draw:” Art and Puzzles Both Improve Mood in Grieving Children

Indianapolis, IN

Several studies have evaluated art's therapeutic effects finding that art therapy is more beneficial than writing therapy (Pizarro, 2004) and that a positive focus in therapeutic art decreases stress levels (Dalebroux, et al., 2008; Curl, 2008). However, only one study has examined art therapy with a clinical population (Lyshak-Stelzer et al., 2007). We compared the effectiveness of art to another visuospatial activity and examined the effects of social interaction for improving mood in grieving children. We hypothesized that art, social collaboration, and an interaction of the two, would produce the most significant improvement in mood. 54 grieving children (ages 6-13) completed a mood scale and then were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: individual art, collaborative art, individual puzzles, or collaborative puzzles. Children in the individual art condition created a "happy person" on their own canvas, whereas children in the collaborative art condition created their "happy person" on a larger shared canvas. Children in the control conditions either completed a small puzzle independently or large puzzle collaboratively. Each intervention lasted 20 minutes before participants again completed the mood measure. Contrary to our hypothesis, both the individual art and individuals puzzle interventions were more effective than collaborations for changing mood. Perhaps the need to collaborate with others introduced frustration or was less effective at allowing children to freely express their emotions. We did find, however, that the individual art group experienced the greatest decrease in negative affect, suggesting that art can be effective for improving mood in grieving children.